Cornell Engineering Workload

<p>I've been hearing a lot about Cornell's tough workload. I know that engineers have to work hard everywhere, but would the engineering (environmental specifically) at Cornell be significantly harder than at Michigan, Wisconsin, or RPI? Or does this talk just stem from the fact that other majors at Cornell work as hard as engineers elsewhere?</p>

<p>yes to mich and RPI, i dont know about wisconsin difficulty so i can’t comment on that. the tough workload is PARTIALLY caused by curved grading because you are competing with smarter kids so you got to work harder to achieve teh grade you want cause you have to beat down your classmates. its also cause theres just a lot of work haha</p>

<p>current engineering freshman here. depending on how many classes you take, you’ll probably have about 2-4 problem sets due per week which take like an hour or two each, one or two pre-labs which take about half an hour to an hour, maybe an essay which could take like 2-3 hours for writing seminar. plus whatever studying you feel is necessary. overall, I don’t think it’s too overwhelming.</p>

<p>jwright, thanks for posting!</p>

<p>that doesn’t sound overwhelming at all, much better than i expected</p>

<p>^^jwright, if the problem sets take you 1-2 hours each, you are a beast!</p>

<p>problem sets take you longer the harder the classes get. My CS assignments took 20-25 hours each (the profs approximation, I tended to need more time than that), and then I’ve spent probably 5-10 hours on stats homework. you might also have ‘problem sets’ where you have to build things…mechanical engineers are notorious for spending many hours in the machine room.</p>

<p>The workload during freshman year tends to be somewhat light. I felt like I had a lot of free time last year, whereas this year I more frequently feel overwhelmed. Many sophomores last semester, for example, had five or six problem sets due a week. Some of my friends, who are upperclassmen in various engineering disciplines, report a similar workload. </p>

<p>Problem sets usually take some time, unless you really know what you’re doing. In Dynamics (ENGRD 2030), for instance, the professor expects each student to spend at least five hours on each weekly homework. I think that the average Cornell student will indeed end up spending about five hours per problem set. </p>

<p>This is still very manageable, however, especially if you have good working habits or don’t spend too much time on other things like project teams. Most of the complaining comes when there is an upcoming prelim and a project due the day after. Life during non-exam periods isn’t all that bad. </p>

<p>Another piece of good news about the work is that it involves using your brain, and is usually “fun”; you’ll probably have an interest in what you’re learning, or, if you’re lucky enough, you might be doing something hands on (this seems to be the case for mechanical engineering, at least). I found myself in the machine shop and/or design studio at least a few hours every day this semester for the notorious MAE 2250.</p>

<p>this might be a difficult question to answer, since each student usually only has one engineering major, but is there a major difference between say, a chemical engineer, a mechanical engineer and a civil engineer?
thanks</p>